Notes / Commercial Description:
When it came time to brew Bottleworks' 13th anniversary beer, we turned to Stone to brew this behemoth. "The Matts" traveled down to San Diego in December to help create this 13-hop, 13-grain monument to our 13 years of selling great craft beer!

Reviews by mhaugo:

More User Reviews:

Poured into an imperial nonic a deep dark brown with a tinge of amber,a creamy one finger light colored head atop that left a few browken rings of lace as it settled slowly.Raisin and sweet cakey aromas with mild earthy hops,it smells like a big sweet alcohol bomb.I am glad to see that it's not a sweet alcohol bomb so much on the palate,there is a sweet dark fruit and cake-like flavors along with some chocolate and mild roast,a earthy almost woody finish to the beer makes it pretty well balanced.A full creamy feel to the beer makes it enjoyable with rich flavors and sticky aftermath,it's a good beer if a bit odd.

Brewed by Stone in honor of Bottleworks Beer Store 13th anniversary.
Served on tap into a tulip glass at Bottleworks.
Appearance is very dark, black, no light, minimal head & effervescence typical of a high ABV beer.
At 11%, I didn't really taste the alcohol all that much but I really felt the punch - after my second glass.
Hop forward. Then the complexity sets in. Wild flavors all over the place confusing the senses. Smooth, sweet, hops.
Should age nicely.
Will update my review when I figure it out.

Some say it is a hot mess and others love it. My palate was tested and I survived. Did I cry? No. Did I have fun trying to figure out what the fuck I was sipping? Yes. To date ... the most fun / interesting brew I have had this year. Gratz BottleWorks on 13 years and a huge nod to Stone for brewing this with them.

Cloudy dark brown and dark mahogany with a small light brown head that lingers for some time, eventually leaving the glass oily and spotted with stick.

A big kitchen sink of aroma: definite hoppiness coming in waves of pine and earth, though this is decidedly a big, sweet, and roast malty aroma, with some big notes of alcohol heat as well. It has everything, sure, but too much isn't necessarily a good thing.

The flavor suffers from a similar fate: there's just too much going on here to be pleasantly complex. It's piney and bitter, sweet, roasty, full of caramel and bread, some char and ash, and big booze notes.

Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. A bit prickly.

I didn't care for this one. A beer brewed on novelty: 13 different hops and 13 different malts celebrating 13 years of business. That's all well and good, until you drink the beer.

This seems like a lot of ingredients in one beer, 13 hops and 13 grains. Deep cola, brown a bit murky with ruby highlights. Big thicket of tan head, forms thick and resilient. Aroma has dark roasts, caramel, herbal, earthy, and pine hops flowing forth. Big dark roasted malt beer, with herbal/pine notes going on. Awesome well made big burly beer, roasted malts, hints of coffee, big hops all day, a very big beer, I figured it would have been one big clusterfuck with all of the ingredients tossed in, but each sip is tight cohesive well blended and just straight up flavorful and good. I can't believe how damn good this beer is, as it warms it becomes a bit more abrasive with hot alcohol. The hops really are unrelenting when you add in 13 varieties, hop burps galore, big mouthfeel slightly slick with hop oils...this is one big beer. Overall I'm a fan because it hits hard with flavor, hops wielding the power of big beer in a manageable fashion.

(Served in a tulip)
A- This beer pours a jet black body with a thin cocoa tan head that is supported by a slow microbubble carbonation that slides up the sides of the glass.

S- The plastic aroma and dubble yeast esters lead to a stout earthiness and a finish of some woody dank hops that are dark aswell. There is a roasted black malt bite and a hop bitterness in the finish.

T- The sweet crystal malt and circus peanut esters blend with an alcohol taste the mixes with the dark hops in the finish. There is a roasted black malt bite and a hop bitterness that lingers after each sip. Some chocolate malt and dried fruit esters come through as it opens aswell.

M- The medium-light mouthfeel has a creamy texture and an alcohol warmth in the finish.

O- This beer is complex but a bit chaotic with flavors all over the place. Some plastic and other odd flavors are in their but most ore nice layers of malt and hops and esters.

A collaboration between Seattle legendary beer store "Bottleworks" and Stone. Cool! This just showed up in Houston recently, so I'm guessing its pretty fresh. Poured from bottle into my CBS snifter (managed to jam the entire bomber in there!). Pours a pretty much pitch black color. It doesn't seem too thick, and has some really nice creamy head that sticks to the sides of the glass and hangs out on top of the beer. Nice, esp given the ABV of this beer. Smell- oohh nice. coffee wafts into my nostrils, as does some citrus hoppy aroma, along with like a chocolate biscuit. Taste- geez. Super aggressive and muddled hoppiness. Almost a salty coffee finish. There is so much going on with this beer, and its kind of all over the place. I guess I expected that, given the crazy amount of different and competing malt and hop profiles used. I keep getting an almost plastic/metallic flavor somewhere mid palate. It's not terribly detracting, and may just be an effect of the mash up of the components. This does have a nice creaminess to it that I really enjoy. Overall, this is a little bit of a mess, but its decent.

A great imperial stout, very black with a Bubbly head and very lacey. Chocolate, coffee, hoppy. Alcohol well hidden. Great dangerous drinkability.Intense mouthfeel.
Radek's bottle, another great Stone hoppy production.Why this is my favourite style.

taste: layers of complexity - takes some detective work by the palate to find it all: smoke and charred malt are prevalent, disagree with other reviews and feel the alcohol is quite hot especially in the finish, heavy roasted malt, coffee, dark fruit, big cherry presence, a moderate bitterness, hops present but not a major factor. I dunno - really a bit charred and overpowering for me right now.